Landscape of digital marketers in vietnam Otc 2017

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The digital marketing landscape
in Vietnam
Voices of Vietnam digital marketers and agencies
From Q&Me Vietnam Market Research

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INTRODUCTION
Vietnam advertisement market is in the middle of huge shift from the traditional
to digital, as smartphone changes the lifestyle of consumers and many spend
hours of time online.
Q&Me, market research service operated by Asia Plus Inc, has conducted the
survey among 155 enterprises (104 brands, 43 agencies, 8 publishers) to
understand their marketing activities, relationship between brands and agencies,
as well as the issues of Vietnam digital marketing industries.

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DIGITAL MARKETERS ACTIVITIES
AMONG VIETNAM ENTERPRISES
Digital marketing activities among Vietnam enterprises
Among several digital marketing activities, Vietnamese enterprises focus on social activities
the most. 84% spend their money on social advertisement. Display advertisement (including
GDN) and Search advertisement / SEM are also popular, with 44% and 46% of the
enterprises invest them respectively.
Social advertisement is popular regardless of the company size. 94% of the mid/large
enterprises (staff number is 50 and more) spend money for social while 79% of small
enterprises (staff number is less than 50) do the activity as well. The other activities are
mainly for the mid/large companies. For instance, 35% of mid/large enterprises take
influencer marketing while the number is 11% only for small enterprises.

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DIGITAL MEDIA IN USE
Digital marketing media in use
Facebook is the most popular media that almost all enterprises have the account. YouTube
follows after that. 99% of the brand use Facebook for their digital marketing. YouTube is
also high, as 72% use it.
Social medias in use
Objective of digital marketing
Facebook is used mainly for branding and campaign. 85% use the media for branding. The
campaign usage is more for middle to big enterprises, as 86% of them use the media for
this objective (small company is 66%).
On the other hand, the objective of Facebook advertisement is for the performance. 87% of the
brands have run Facebook ads for the last 12 months. The biggest objective is the lead
generation. 78% use it for “increase number of inquiries (email, information request)” followed by
“Increase Likes/followers”. Social ads are linked as performance marketing in Vietnam.
99%
FACEBOOK
72%
YOUTUBE
44%
INSTAGRAM
33%
ZALO

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Popular media for online video
Online vide is one of the most popular digital marketing activities in Vietnam, with 85% of brands
use it. YouTube and Facebook are the two most popular online video media. Although YouTube is
more popular in terms of media, Facebook ads are used more often when brands would like to run
the advertisements.
85%
77%
74%
73%
67%
64%
57%
52%
37%
33%
Branding
Campaign
PR
Customer support
Feedback to product
development
Traffic increase to the website
Member acquisition
Traffic increase to the real
store
Traffic conversion at EC
Hiring
Facebook operation objective
78%
74%
68%
64%
55%
50%
39%
Increase number of inquiries
(email, information request)
Increase Likes/followers
Increase Views of the posted
contents
Increase traffic to the landing
page / website
Increase conversion
Increase traffic and purchase
at realshop
Increase # of search
Facebook ad objective
91%
86%
65%
15%
6%
3%
Youtube
Facebook
Own website
Use ad network/ DSP
CocCoc
Other
Media to use online video marketing

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DIGITAL MEDIAS OPERATIONS
Ratio of in-house and outsource in digital media operations
Most Facebook sites are managed by in-house. 87% of brands manage their site internally
while those who outsource account for only 13%. When it comes to the advertisement
operations, the outsource ratio goes up to 36%.
The key of in-house and outsource are the skills and cost. While 73% of in-house brands
answer “We have enough skills to operate ads ourselves”, 77% of outsource brands also
choose “Agencies have more skills to generate better performance” as the reason of not doing it
in-house. 58% of in-house enterprises also mention about avoiding additional cost.
87%
64%
59%
82%
13%
36%
41%
2% 16%
Facebook operations
Facebook ads operations
Online video ads operations
Website
Who is in charge of Facebook operation
In-house Outsource Mix of in-house and outsource

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ISSUES OF DIGITAL MARKETING IN
VIETNAM
Digital marketing satisfaction
When it comes to the satisfaction in digital marketing, brands are satisfied with its
performance but less happy with its cost and the impact to the business. 55% are either
very satisfied or satisfied with its performance, whereas the figures go down for cost
(satisfied / very satisfied are 33%) and sales impact (32%). Especially the figure from the
mid / large companies are low as to the satisfaction in sales impact.
Digital marketing advantages / disadvantages
So how do enterprises perceive the advantages and disadvantages in digital marketing?
“Better audience targeting (78%)” and “Flexible budget planning (77%) are among the tops
that are considered as advantage. On the other hand, they acknowledge “Difficulty to reach
elderly segment (72%)” and “Difficulty to reach rural area (69%)” as its weakness. Digital
marketing is perceived as the approach to reach the youth in urban areas.

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Issues in digital marketing of Vietnam
What are the issues to be solved in Vietnam digital marketing? The answer with highest
vote are “lack of educational opportunity”. The learning opportunities of digital marketing
seem to be missing in Vietnam despite of its rapid industry increase. What follows
afterwards is the lack of understanding in digital marketing among management.
Interesting item is “Lack of specialist on brand side”. While no more than 30% of brands
think this is an issue, the ratio goes to 63% among agencies. The perspectives from brand
and agency are quite different. The agencies in Vietnam perceive the lack of digital
knowledge on client side as one of the big headache.
78%
77%
75%
74%
72%
69%
68%
34%
Better audience targeting
Flexible budget planning
Easy to see audience
response
Easy to measure performance
Easy to change / modify the
contents
Flexibility in creative
Shorter lead time
Higher ROI
Digital Marketing advantage
72%
69%
30%
25%
21%
19%
17%
Difficulty to reach elderly
segment
Difficulty to reach audience in
ruralarea
ROI is not clear nor good
Small budget allocaiton
Difficulty to measure
performance
Little business impact
Quality of contents
Digital Marketing disadvantage

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BRAND / AGENCY RELATIONSHIPS
Agency satisfaction
When brands are asked to score their satisfaction of their agencies from 1-10 (10 =
satisfied, 1=dissatisfied), only 10% scores 8 and higher while 71% scores 6 and less. The
main reasons of their low scores come from such items as “deliverables different from
original (66%)” and “slow response of the team (40%)”.
66%
63%
50%
41%
39%
35%
31%
30%
27%
22%
19%
17%
Lack of training & educationalopportunity
Lack of understanding among the management
Inappropriate organizationalstructure for digitalmarketing
Lack of specialist on brand side
Lack of effective measurement tools
Lack of specialists on agency side
Budget allocated to digital is not big enough
Unclear ROI
Slow network connections
Lack of adtech company
Lack of effective digitalmedia
High cost of digital marketing
Issues in digital marketing of Vietnam
1% 3%
3%
7%
16%
32%
29%
8%
1% 1%
Satisfaction in agency
(10=highest, 1=lowest)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
66%
40%
40%
35%
35%
32%
26%
Deliverables different from
original
Slow response of the team
Lack of flexibility
Lack of reporting
Poor quality in creative
Poor performance
Delay in delivery
Reasons for dissatisfaction (6 and
below)

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Issues between brand and agency
So why there is little satisfaction between brand and agency? When asked about the
challenges working with agency, many brands point out “limited understanding of company
strategy (49%)” and “lack of performance tracking (47%)”. On the other hand, brands feel
that “budget is limited (77%)” as well as brand “fears in new approach (70%)”.
Gaps between brand and agency
We see several gaps as to how both of brand and agency recognize the current
communications.
For instance, 41% of brands think that they give detailed explanation in briefing. However,
only 9% agencies mention they receive such things and 81% answers that they answer brief
explanation only. The same briefing documents seem to be taken differently between brand
and agency.
49%
47%
46%
40%
39%
38%
38%
35%
29%
19%
Limited understanding of
company strategy
Performance tracking
High cost
Lack of transparency
Lack of practicalideas
Movement from strategic to
tacticalexecution
Lack of innovative ideas
Limited ability to integrate
online & offline
Project management
Communication problems
Issues: Brand > Agency
77%
70%
60%
60%
60%
35%
23%
Limited budget
Fear in the new approach
No clear goals and objectives
Lack of market understanding
Frequent direction change
Communication problems
Project management
Issues: Agency > Brand

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The same gap is applicable to the proposal quality. Only 19% of brands are satisfied with
the agencies proposals, whereas 44% of agencies are confident with what they propose.
Brands are not happy with the proposals as they are “lack of business / industry
understanding (67%)”, “lack of requirement understanding (60%)”, or “proposal with poor
idea (53%)”.
41%
48%
11%
BRIEFING (BRAND)
Detailed explanation Brief explanation
Others
9%
81%
9%
BRIEFING (AGENCY)
Detailed explanation Brief explanation
Others
1%
18%
61%
13%
1%
7%
PROPOSAL SATISFACTION:
BRAND
Very good Good Average
Bad Very bad Others
16%
28%
42%
9%
2%2%
PROPOSAL SATISFACTION:
AGENCY
Very good Good Average
Bad Very bad Others

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Also, the gap can be found in cost. 63% of brands think that the cost from agencies are
expensive. On the other hand, 54% of agencies think that the budget given from brands are
too small. This is the fundamental gap that could cause problems between agencies and
brands in Vietnam. 56% of brands expect the cost be lower by 11-20%.
9%
54%
30%
1%5%
OPINION ON AGENCY COST
Very high High
Average Affordable
Very affordable Others
0%0%
44%
49%
5%2%
OPINIONS ON BUDGET FROM
BRAND
More than enough Enough
Average Little
Too little Others

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RESPONDENT PROFILE
The survey was conducted from 155 enterprises in Vietnam in October 2017.
42%
40%
5%
5%
4%
4%
Intermediate/ Middle level
Senior Manager/ Manager
Owner
CxO (CIO, COO, CTO, CMO,…
President or CEO
Director
Job level
9%
33%
13%
15%
10%
9%
11%
Less than 10 employees
11 - 50 employees
51 - 100 employees
101 - 250 employees
251 - 500 employees
501 - 1,000 employees
More than 1,000 employees
Company size
28%
5%68%
Company type
Marketing /
Advertisement agency
Publisher / Media
company
Brands

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